Contentious issues like the increasing awareness that January 26 is a painful memory to the indigenous custodians of the land have generated healthy and ongoing debate about just what we are celebrating.

What is also a mark of where our nation might be heading is our ability to keep these important debates civilised.

And this year the debate has taken on an added and heightened tension with the major bushfire crisis that has wracked the nation.

People have struggled with a sense of jubilation at a time that seems more fit for mourning or determined action.

For no day should be frozen in the jingoistic fantasy of the past or fail to reflect the changing face, temperament and cross-section of a dynamic nation.

A reactionary intolerance to change will simply erode the relevance and respect of a concept that still has much merit.

Such a day should be as much about the future, the present that makes it as it is about the past.

And one ongoing thing Australia Day has celebrated that should not be missed, whenever or however it is commemorated, is the people who make up the nation, particulalrly all those whether at a national or local level who have made unstinting philanthropic contributions.

These people deserve our praise and, on at least one day of the year, our appreciation.

Civility would argue that for a moment we should put their worth above our own causes, however passionate or frustrated.

Because these are often high and humble achievers who have done what they did not for payment or praise but because they saw a cause or purpose worth doing well.

After all the flag-waving and evanescent fireworks, the real substance of which a country is made is the people who, in their incremental way, work to make it a better place.